One of the man's coworkers said both were in the store together, when she heard a loud bang, and turned to find the victim lying in a pool of blood. The man had apparently just finished charging the phone and placed it in his shirt pocket.

The make and model of the phone were not reported. Police are said to be investigating whether the cell phone or the battery were counterfeit.

Motorola and Nokia have in the past denied links to problem batteries in China.

This is said to be the ninth such cell phone explosion in China since 2002, including one last year which killed an iron worker in Gansu province.

There have been several other reports of people killed by cell phone explosions, in nations ranging from Ghana to South Korea.